Crafting

From SpiralKnights

Crafting is the process by which knights make new equipment such as weapons and armor. Crafting an item is usually much less expensive than buying the item from a vendor or the Supply Depot. Crafting also offers a chance of acquiring valuable unique variants.

Crafting an item requires a recipe, the materials listed in the recipe, orbs of alchemy, and crowns. When upgrading an item from one star level to the next, crafting also requires a precursor item. The knight assembles these ingredients at an alchemy machine, which manufactures the item according to its recipe. Crafting is not tied to any skill, and it always succeeds.

Recipes can also be be purchased from other knights, for example through the Auction House, but usually for a higher price. When purchasing a recipe, the player can view its details by hovering his or her mouse over the recipe. Once a recipe is purchased, it appears in the knight's Arsenal. It's important to note that some recipes are bound upon purchase and cannot be traded.

Before a recipe is used, it must be learned. When a recipe is learned, it vanishes from the knight's Arsenal but appears in the knight's list of learned recipes. Once a recipe is learned, it cannot be unlearned or traded to another knight, but the item that it describes may be crafted as many times as the player desires. Knights can see the learned recipes from the main menu or using F5 on their keyboard.

Materials

Each recipe lists the materials that it requires. Low-star recipes require low-star materials, while high-star recipes require high-star materials and large quantities of low-star materials. Most materials are acquired randomly while adventuring in the Clockworks. Some materials can be bought at Brinks for tokens and at Sullivan for Krogmo Coins, while others can be found in the Supply Depot. Materials can also be traded between knights, and hence sold in the Auction House.

Crowns and Orbs

Once the knight has learned a recipe and assembled its materials, the knight is able to craft the recipe anywhere inside Haven or at an Alchemy Machine. These Alchemy Machines may also be found in Moorcroft Manor, Emberlight, mission lobbies, and guild halls. In addition to the materials, an alchemy machine requires a payment in crowns and orbs of alchemy for each item that it crafts. The cost of crafting roughly doubles with each star level:

The item has a small chance of acquiring one, two, or even three unique variants.

Upgrading

Crafting is not only used to make items from scratch. It is also used to upgrade items from one star level to the next. The recipe for an upgrade lists the precursor item in addition to the materials. The precursor item must be unequipped when it is used in the upgrade crafting. The upgraded item replaces the precursor item in the knight's Arsenal.

It is worth noting the enormous cost of upgrading a 4-star item to 5 stars and heating the 5-star item. A 5-star recipe costs more than its 2-, 3-, and 4-star versions combined. Players who don't have a lot of extra Eternal Orbs of Alchemy and Radiant Fire Crystals must purchase these items using energy, and this cost dwarfs the entire cost of making a 4-star item from scratch and heating it. In other words, as far as cost is concerned, a typical 4-star item is far less than halfway finished with its alchemy path.

Heating and Binding

Upgrading a 0-, 1-, or 2-star item does not require any heat on the item. To upgrade a 3-star item to 4 stars, the 3-star item must have heat level 5 or higher. To upgrade a 4-star item to 5 stars, the 4-star item must have heat level 10. Beyond these minimum requirements, the heat level of the precursor item has no effect on the success or quality of the upgrade. The upgraded item always begins at heat level 1.

If the precursor item is bound, then the newly upgraded item will also be bound. Because an item must be equipped to be heated, and equipping an item binds it, this rule means that any newly made 4- and 5-star item is bound. The item cannot be traded to another player, unless an unbinding fee is paid at Vise. Consequently, 4- and 5-star items command extremely high prices, in comparison to 3-star items.

Unique Variants and Accessories

When upgrading an item with unique variants (UVs), the knight chooses whether to keep the UVs or not. If he or she keeps the UVs, then the upgraded item will have exactly those UVs, with no chance of more or better UVs. If he or she discards the UVs, then the upgraded item has the same chance of acquiring up to three UVs as an item made from scratch.

The upgrading process preserves accessories, as long as the upgraded version has the required accessory slot. That is, if the upgraded suit or helmet can carry the attached accessory, then it does. If it cannot carry the attached accessory, then the accessory is destroyed.

Special Alchemy Machines

Apart from regular alchemy machines described earlier, there are several special alchemy machines that function differently. These alchemy machines cannot be used to craft any item; rather, each one has a predetermined library of items that it can craft. The recipes for these items are not purchased and learned by the knight. Instead, the recipes are "inside" the machine.